While the powers that be in Formula 1 debate the benefits and drawbacks of various forms of cockpit protection, at least one of the drivers who would be affected by their decision thinks that his opinion and those of his colleagues should at least be taken into account.

That driver is Carlos Sainz, Jr, the 22-year-old Spaniard who drives for Toro Rosso. The son of a former two-time World Rally Champion (and winner of two Formula Renault championships) Carlos Sainz, Carlos Junior made his race debut with “the other Scuderia” last season. And though he’s yet to prove himself a real contender, he feels his opinion ought to count for something.

“I think that every driver should try it before 2017, then every driver should give their opinion and there should be a vote after running the Halo,” Sainz said, as quoted by Motorsport.com. “This is the most common sense thing to do, even though in the end they probably won’t take into consideration our vote.”

Formula One began testing potential cockpit protection devices earlier this year in an effort to protect drivers from the inherent dangers of driving an open-cockpit racing car. Rather than enclose the cockpit entirely (as Le Mans prototypes have done), however, F1 is looking at partial reinforcements in the form of either a “halo” like the one Ferrari and Mercedes have championed, or an “aeroscreen” like Red Bull has proposed.

Failing to come to a consensus, the Formula 1 Strategy Group opted to push off implementation of any sort of solution until 2018 – and Sainz thinks that’s a shame. “They want to bring it for ’18, but if something happens in ’17, you look back and say ‘ah, maybe we should have left the Halo [on] for one year’, before bringing on the nice-looking super-safe aspect for 2018 that they have promised.” Sainz concluded, “It’s a question mark we all have, hopefully it will not be like that and nothing will happen.”

In the end Carlos may not have his voice, or those of his contemporaries, heard on the matter, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see him head up the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association at some point in his career. The chairmanship of the drivers’ union has been held by Alexander Wurz since 2014, even though he hasn’t contested an actual grand prix since 2007.

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